It was an extremely windy day. At Yonge-Finch, there are always a lot of extremely shady men who often come up with unpleasant words. The combination of strong winds and crazy people petrified me even though I know that we are always protected by Sri guru and gauranga. So I decided to move closer to some crowds but how much of a crowd can one find on such a windy day. As I stood scared but trying to smile, this young, clean looking guy stopped without me asking him to stop, this scared me even further. He asked me if I was stopping people to sell something. I told him I was a yoga teacher and asked him if he knew anything about it. He said he had been doing yoga for a year; trying to stay still in the blowing wind, I handed him the Bhagavad Gita
I opened the book and started showing him the mantras and he said 'don't open the book it will get spoiled. I believe you and I will take it. How much is it?'. I told him it was a donation. To avoid the wind he offered to go to the side and talk-whatever was left of me, got further scared, but we stepped aside and he just gave me the laxmi and was ready to go. But then I stopped him and said hey I have a mantra for you. I told him try saying Gauranga. He didn't say it but asked what it meant. I told him it means 'Be happy'. He said 'Be happy'. I said yes, just try it. He then went away and I got back to my insignificant sankirtan efforts.
Suddenly I saw him come back and all my fear signals went off. I decided to turn around and hide, started to walk away. He saw me and called out, I pretended to be pre-occupied with my phone. Finally, he screamed GAURANGA and then again GAURANGA, now I had to stop.
He had unknowingly actually started the process of Bhakti Yoga. Later he came to me and asked me some questions but by now my fear was dead. He had called out to the Supreme Lord - he must have been a devotee from some life. Such is the power and mercy of the holy name
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This episode reminded me of the account of Gajendra. Vaisesika prabhu had explained that Gajendra did not remember that he was Indradyumna or a bhakta. After 1000 years of battle with the crocodile when he realised he was going to lose and die, he still did not remember Krishna. But he remembered the Bhakti Yoga process he had followed in the past life and started reciting the prayers from his past life, not knowing who he was calling to. But the lord accepted the prayers and came right away to deliver his devotee.
Śrī Śukadeva Gosvāmī continued: Thereafter, the King of the elephants, Gajendra, fixed his mind in his heart with perfect intelligence and chanted a mantra which he had learned in his previous birth as Indradyumna and which he remembered by the grace of Kṛṣṇa. SB 8.3.1
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